by Don Frances

Share

A Reseda man accused of stealing movie posters -- a half-million dollars’ worth of them, taken from bus stops and sold online -- pleaded no contest yesterday, prosecutors announced.

Christian Eric Stevens, 36, admitted to one count of grand theft, resulting in his immediate sentencing of 25 days in jail plus another month of picking up trash by the highway, according to the L.A. County DA’s Office.

Prosecutors say Stevens took as many as 3,000 posters, with a total value of up to $500,000, from bus stops between June 3, 2011, and March 27, 2012. He was arrested last month and had faced up to five years in prison before his Tuesday plea deal in a Van Nuys courtroom.

Nearly half of the posters were sold online, but LAPD investigators recovered 1,770 of them valued at $265,500, according to the DA’s office.

The posters’ movie titles varied, authorities said, although police seemed to make special note of “The Hunger Games” in an L.A. Times story on the case.

Investigators, acting on a tip, served a warrant on Stevens’ home and found a “trove” of the posters there, the Times reported.

“There were posters for virtually every movie that's been out for the last two years,” a police commander said, according to CBS.